New regulations on the formation and continuation of the company name

On July 1, 2016, the Federal Council enacted new legal provisions on the formation of company names. These new provisions facilitate company succession for partnerships. In future, the same regulations will apply to all companies when forming a company name.

Continuity in the event of changes of legal form and shareholders

The amendment to the Code of Obligations means that once a company name has been chosen, it can continue to be used indefinitely. In particular, in the case of partnerships, changes of shareholders are possible without changing the company name, and the conversion to a different legal form ideally only affects the company name in the addition of the legal form. This preserves the value of a company name that has been created and maintained. In addition, the respective legal form will be directly recognizable from the company name in future.

Uniform regulations for company formation

Furthermore, the same regulations will apply to all companies in future when forming a company name. With the exception of sole proprietorships, the company name consists of a freely definable core that is supplemented with the corresponding legal form. The legal form may be written out in full or abbreviated. The permitted abbreviations of the legal forms are set out in an annex to the Commercial Register Ordinance. The amendment to the CO is intended to standardize the exclusivity of the company name and extend it to the whole of Switzerland for all companies. This takes account of the fact that the sphere of activity of many companies is no longer limited to the municipality in which their registered office is located.